Dr Kavita murdered: Meerut police

UP ministers get clean chit in lecturer murder case, reports M Hasan.

The Meerut police on Monday confirmed that Dr Kavita Rani, lecturer in Chaudhury Charan Singh University was murdered on October 24. The police said she was strangulated to death and her body was thrown into a canal in Bulandshahr. Dr Rani had disappeared on October 23, 2006.

The Meerut SSP Navnit Sikera, giving clean chit to two UP ministers Babulal and Kiranpal Singh in murder case, said that Dr Rani, 29, was a "blackmailer" and used to prepare Compact Disc (CD) involving prominent politicians. Initially, the police dithered in probing into the case. But when the names of two ministers cropped up, the Meerut police started hunt for main accused Ravindra Pradhan. Kavita’s brother had lodged named FIR against Pradhan. In order to pressure the surrender of absconding Pradhan the Meerut police had arrested his family members.

The SSP said that Pradhan had killed her with the help of Yogesh of Aligarh. Pradhan, who was arrested from office of a news channel on Sunday, told the police that there was dispute over the sharing of money and he killed her. Pradhan said he was an accomplice in her deals. He told the police that Dr Rani had prepared bedroom CD of former Rashtriya Lok Dal Minister Dr Mairajuddin Ahmad. He said that shaken over the CD Dr Ahmad paid Rs 35 lakh to Dr Rani to stop her from blackmailing him.

Pradhan said Ahmad had given money to Yogesh. He said a CD of suspended Samajwadi Party MLA Brijendra Pratap Singh was also prepared but he (Pradhan) had not seen it. Singh, who was chairman of Lalit Kala Academy before joining VP Singh’s Jan Morcha, had appointed Dr Rani as one of the members in committee of the academy.

The SSP said that her body could so far been not recovered from the canal. Sikera said investigations did not indicate the involvement of the two ministers. He said the murder was purely for sharing of blackmail money. Even though the police could not produce any CD, Sikera claimed that she had prepared several CDs of high profile people in Meerut and other cities. Pradhan said he had never taken names of any minister and Babulal was not related to him.

Reacting to development Dr Mairajuddin resigned from RLD. He said some criminals and politicians had ganged up to tarnish his image. He said so far the police had not inquired from about the case. VP Singh told the newsmen in Lucknow that he demanded CBI probe into the case. He said in view of seriousness of the charges, CBI investigation had become necessary. He said probe should also be conducted against Jan Morcha leader Brijendra Pratap Singh. The Congress leader Jagdambika Pal also demanded CBI probe.